ESTIMATING BIOTRANSFORMATION RATE CONSTANTS FOR SEQUENTIAL REDUCTIVE DEHALOGENATION REACTIONS

One of the main problems facing water-quality modelers is obtaining laboratory data and determining the biokinetic parameters required to run a model simulating the biotransformation process, termed reductive dehalogenation, that transforms chlorinated hydrocarbons into intermediate compounds, then into a final compound that is not always easily biodegradable. The numerical values of these parameters are estimated by fitting the batch data to the Michaelis-Menten equation. However, when dealing with more than one intermediate compound in a sequential bioconversion process, the standard graphical techniques are not sufficient. Therefore, it is the purpose of this study to present a general technique to obtain Michaelis-Menten biokinetic parameters of sequential multi-intermediate systems. A simplification of the general technique is introduced for low-concentration compounds, and biotransformation data simulated for carbon tetrachloride using the estimated rate coefficients.